Part 6 - Contact: The Spark That Starts Everything
(Phassa — When World and Mind Meet)
Every moment of experience
begins with contact (phassa).
Contact is the instant
when three things meet:
1️⃣ A sense organ
— eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind
2️⃣ A sense object
— sight, sound, taste, etc.
3️⃣ Consciousness
— the knowing of that object
When these three touch,
a spark of experience appears.
No spark → no experience → no story.
Contact is not yet a problem
Contact is neutral.
It does not hurt us.
It does not help us.
It is just the meeting point
between the world and the mind.
Example:
- A sound hits the ear
- The ear hears it
- Consciousness knows it
That’s all.
There is no self yet.
Where suffering begins
Suffering does not begin at contact.
But if we are not mindful here,
the chain rapidly unfolds:
contact → feeling → craving → clinging → identity → suffering
The spark is harmless.
The fire that follows is not.
The world gives only the spark
The mind adds everything else
From contact alone, there is:
- no annoyance
- no pleasure
- no story
- no “me”
The world cannot give us suffering.
The world only gives us contact.
What we do next
creates everything that hurts.
This is the most empowering insight
If contact itself is not suffering,
then freedom begins before interpretation.
We do not need to change the world.
We only need to notice:
“A spark has appeared —
what will the mind build around it?”
When we see the spark as just a spark,
the fire has no fuel.
One sentence summary of Part 6
Contact is the spark that starts experience—
no self yet, no suffering yet.